"Boundaries are de facto experiments in land management," says Canadian ecologist, Dr Roger Suffling, of University of Waterloo, who chaired the symposium.

He says political borders divide an ecosystem and allow a useful comparison of different land management practice.

"You have the opportunity of looking over the border and saying, well, is that better or worse than what we do?" says Suffling.

He says the differences across borders can be seen from space by satellite.

Suffling says the most famous case is the ferociously guarded demilitarised zone between North and South Korea, which stands out from space.

"It has been untended basically since 1950. The area is mined and fenced and nobody can go in there without creating a diplomatic incident," he says.

As a result of this protection, the area is now home to endangered Asian cranes, black-faced spoonbills, angora goats, Amur leopards, bears and there are even unconfirmed reports of the Siberian Tiger.

"If there was ever a reunification, this would have to be a national park," says Suffling.

Satellite images have also been used to study the impact of increased logging and timber in Russia, along the border with Finland, and the impact of greater amounts of grazing in Egypt, along the border with Israel.

Suffling says by contrast, satellite images show little difference between Canadian and US national parks.

"The satellite images don't lie. They tell you what is happening," he says.

Borders close up

One field study of border ecology is being carried out by Dr Uri Shanas of the University of Haifa-Oranim in Israel and colleagues.

They are comparing the impact on biodiversity of modern agriculture in Israel with the more nomadic land management of Jordan.

Shanas and colleagues are studying a 60-kilometre long and 10 kilometre wide section of the Arava valley, along the border between Jordan and Israel.

While much of the Israeli side was exploited for agriculture the Jordanian side remained intact, says Shanas.

"That provided us with a really good test case to study how anthropogenic impact might affect the ecology of the region, and we found really striking differences."

Antlions

Among other things, Shanas and colleagues studied a curious creature called the antlion, which makes pits in the ground to catch invertebrates to feed on.

It throws sand at its prey causing it to tumble into the pit.

They found almost no antlions in Jordan, but an abundance on the Israeli side. They think this maybe because there are more gazelles in Israel, where they are protected.

Gazelles break the crust on top of the soil, enabling ant lions to form pits, says Shanas.

Another difference Shanas and colleagues found between the two sides is that they were unable to catch any native rodents in traps laid on the Israeli side.

The researchers think foxes, drawn by the abundant water and food sources on the Israeli farms are making rodents on that side more suspicious of traps.

The researchers are now studying the significance of these differences in biodiversity to the ecology on both sides of the border.

Beyond political tensions

For example, he says he had to smuggle peanut butter snacks used as rodent bait across the border to Jordan for use by his Jordanian colleagues.

Suffling says research on ecology at political boundaries can change social relationships between countries.

"Scientists have always been good at working under the radar, at forming relationships across the iron curtain, between the Arabs and Israelis, between people who in other respects have a lot of difficulties getting along," he says.

"So it's one of those connections you can make that helps eventually to bind and heal."